The South African 800m runner is back and tipped to blow the field away in Rio, but those who have followed her career closely fear that the reaction to her success would reignite uncomfortable debates from the past

It’s a ticking timebomb,” Daniel Mothowagae says quietly on a winter’s night in Johannesburg as he anticipates the furore that is likely to explode when Caster Semenya runs in the Olympic Games. Apart from being described by many athletics specialists as an almost certain winner of the women’s 800m in Rio, Semenya will suffer again as she is made to personify the complex issues surrounding sex verification in sport.

An hour earlier Mothowagae had filed his copy for the latest edition of The Sowetan newspaper. It had been a busy day with the announcement of the South African Olympic squad and, even as he relaxed into our conversation, Mothowagae spoke of his niggling worry. After a month of interviewing insiders and experts in this incendiary debate, I understood what he meant. The fierce opposition of opinion has made my head spin. Even the way in which each person describes Semenya is strikingly different.

What is an intersex athlete? Explaining the case of Caster Semenya

Read more

Mothowagae, who is friendly with Semenya, sounds innocent when saying: “Caster is just a tomboy.” His fellow sportswriter, Wesley Botton, who has followed Semenya more closely than any reporter since her surprising emergence as a world champion in 2009, laments the fact “she has become the poster girl for hyperandrogenism.” Jean Verster, the athlete’s coach, stresses that “Caster is a fantastic human being, a down-to-earth person and a great athlete who is like a mother to some of the girl athletes in our group.” Meanwhile Ross Tucker, the eminent South African sports scientist, regrets the personalisation of hyperandrogenism, but he is “dreading the Olympics because Semenya will win and the fallout will be deeply unpleasant.”

These contrasting South African voices are united by shared conviction. They all believe Semenya is about to unleash the full force of her supreme ability and smash a world record that has stood for 33 years. But they also agree Semenya will be confronted by an invasive scrutiny on her alone – even when there are “open secrets” that three of the Olympic 800m finalists might be intersex athletes. Verster, South Africa’s most accomplished running coach, concedes that “even now, I am trying to protect Caster”.

The debate around hyperandrogenism is as poignant as it is thorny. In simplistic summary it asks us to decide whose rights need to be protected most. Is it the small minority of women whose exceedingly high testosterone levels, which their bodies produce naturally, categorise them as intersex athletes? Should their human rights be ring-fenced so that, as is the case now following an overturned legal ruling, they are free to compete as women without being forced to take medication that suppresses their testosterone? Or should the overwhelming majority of female athletes be protected – so they are not disadvantaged unfairly against faster and stronger intersex competitors?

“We all differ in our opinions,” Mothowagae says, “but for me it’s a closed case. Caster is allowed to compete. Cas have made their ruling.”

'We don’t know if your baby’s a boy or a girl': growing up intersex

Read more

“Caster always tells me that as long as the rules say she can compete she will run,” Mothowagae says. “Rio will test how much officials have learned from her ordeal at the 2009 world championships. If Caster could survive it as an 18-year-old she can face anything at 25. She is brave and she can look at the world. But the administrators don’t seem to have any strategy even though we know Caster will be insulted again. She suffered psychological torture before but it’s building to a new level. The bomb is ticking.”

That ticking has been intensified by Semenya’s blistering form. After being in the doldrums for much of the period when she was compelled to take testosterone-suppressing medication, with other factors also bringing her down, Semenya has produced some astonishing performances in 2016. She won the 400m, the 800m and the 1500m in imperious style one unforgettable afternoon at the South African championships in April and then, this month, ran 1.55.33 in Monaco. It was the fastest women’s 800m time since 2008.

“She is proof of the benefit of testosterone to intersex athletes,” Tucker argues. “Having had the restriction removed she is now about six seconds faster than she had been the last two years.”

Caster Semenya has had a strong body of support in South Africa during a career that has seen her undergo a number of tough, unpleasant ordeals. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

I have spoken to others who offer more personal reasons for Semenya’s accelerated form. Botton recalls her breakout performance in July 2009 in Mauritius. “She came out of the blue and ran 1.56,” the sportswriter says. “I tried to get hold of her and remember being very confused, man. She’s got such a deep voice, especially on the phone, I thought I was speaking to a man. I ended up Googling her and all this information came up. Until then I had no idea. There were blogs saying [wrongly] she was an hermaphrodite. I just remember that first interview being very difficult because, apart from being so young, she was very shy.”

Was the teenager surprised by her time? “No – she knew she was capable of those times. Caster always runs within herself until it’s a major championship. That’s the only time she puts the hammer down.”

Semenya put the hammer down in Berlin and became world champion in August 2009 after powering her way to victory in 1:55:45. The IAAF had already revealed the day before that Semenya’s dramatic appearance on the world stage had nothing to do with doping. It was confirmed she had been subjected to “gender verification tests” in South Africa and Germany. An endocrinologist, a gynaecologist and a psychologist had tried to establish whether Semenya, who had lived her whole life as a girl, was actually a man. She was allowed to run in the final as the IAAF implied that further “sex tests” had been conducted.

Another 800m finalist, Italy’s Elisa Cusma, sneered at the silent new champion: “She is a man.” Athletics South Africa [ASA] meanwhile accused the IAAF of racism and denied having tricked Semenya into verification tests. Their disgraced president, Leonard Chuene, soon admitted he had lied while South Africa’s sports minister, Makhenkesi Stofile, warned of “a third world war” should Semenya’s intersex status be confirmed.

Semenya celebrates the 800m victory in the 2009 World Championships that saw her explode onto the global stage. Photograph: John Giles/PA

“I’ve been told that they made the decision to withdraw her before the heats,” Botton says. “But politicians forced her to run. They wanted that medal – and she was the first black South African woman to win a world track title. So they threw Caster to the wolves.”

Ockert de Villiers, now the chief Olympic writer for The Star in Johannesburg, remembers that “in 2009 I was working for an Afrikaans tabloid called Sondag [Sunday] and they took a nasty angle with Caster. They called her a ‘trassie’ – Afrikaans slang for transvestite. The terminology is completely wrong when we know Caster’s condition.”

Botton is plagued by other memories. “Caster needed help and she was approached by people she shouldn’t have trusted. Someone sold an article with Caster to You magazine where they dolled her up in a dress. You never see Caster in a dress. It was so awkward. Caster went off the rails. Over the next few years her performances dropped for a multitude of reasons. It wasn’t just [testosterone-suppressing] medication. She was a long way from home – a very rural community – and thrust into this global limelight. Then she fell out with her old coach Michael Seme and, apparently, started partying hard in Pretoria. Michael said she was spending more time with her girlfriend than training.

“She then went to Maria Mutola [the former Olympic 800m champion from Mozambique] and won silver at the London Olympics. But then Mutola had business problems in Mozambique and went home. Everything only improved dramatically when she moved to Potch to work with Jean Verster.”

Potchefstroom is a mere 75 miles from Johannesburg. But it feels like another world. It is a small and secluded university town – and an ideal training centre for international athletes. The chatty and intelligent Verster tells me of his past work with Kelly Holmes and the World Cup-winning Spanish football squad in Potch. He also explains how his working relationship with Semenya unfolded.

“In October 2014 Caster called me and asked to join our training group. I said ‘No problem’ – but I didn’t know what to expect. I’d read about her knee injury and it was terrible to see her struggling in 2013 and 2014. She was limping when running. She was overweight and going through a hard period. It was a surprise when she phoned but what a pleasure. I was amazed by the person she is. She brought a new dynamic to the group – always smiling and laughing even though she was so unfit. With Caster it’s been a long, hard and great journey to get healthy and in form.”

Semenya is now running faster than at any time in the last two years and it is inevitable that questions will be asked if this form continues. Photograph: Anesh Debiky/AFP/Getty Images

Verster transformed Semenya’s persona. The often surly athlete, who had been burned so badly, seemed a new person. “When we saw Caster the first time after she went to Potch she looked so much leaner and fitter and she was smiling,” Botton remembers. “I hadn’t seen her smile in ages. She was no longer abrupt and abrasive. Sometimes she had been very rude to me but I took it with a pinch of salt because I knew what she’d been through. She can be aggressive. She can swear at you. But since she moved to Jean she is so much happier. She looks liberated.”

On 27 July 2015 Semenya was liberated further when Dutee Chand won her landmark case at Cas. The 19-year-old Indian sprinter was cleared to run competitively after her lawyers argued that her exclusion on the basis that sex-verification tests, relying primarily on levels of testosterone, were discriminatory. All regulations around hyperandrogenism were suspended until July 2017. Semenya was free to run naturally again – without testosterone-suppressing medication.

When I suggest to Verster that Semenya must have been bolstered psychologically he insists: “No, no. To be honest with you she didn’t even know about the ruling. She’s very serious about her studies – she’s taking a sports science degree at Potch. Every minute she spends running, she spends five minutes studying.”

Semenya attempts to keep a hostile world at bay so it is possible she had not followed the Cas ruling closely. But once she heard the news she must have discussed with Verster the fact she could stop taking restrictive medication which, for four years, had been legally prescriptive? “Well, Caster does what she needs to do,” Verster replies. “Of course every now and then, as she’s only human, she would go through patches of feeling tired. Some days we had to do a little less.”

Verster wants to protect Semenya and so his avoidance of discussing her intersex status publicly is understandable. Marjolaine Viret, a Swiss-based attorney with specialist knowledge of Cas, is more helpful. “To regulate something this complex you have to find some form of compromise and in these science-related domains it’s difficult to strike the right balance,” she explains. “In Dutee Chand’s case it came down to a question of whether the IAAF regulations had a sufficiently solid scientific foundation. The Cas panel defined the crucial factor as being whether intersex athletes would have sufficient advantages to outweigh any female characteristics and make them comparable to male-performance levels. They assigned the burden of proof to the IAAF – and the party which has the burden of proof usually fails. When they assign the burden of proof they almost predetermine the legal outcome.”

Did Viret agree with the ruling? “From a legal perspective there were various issues I wouldn’t agree with – especially the interim ruling. They didn’t put an end to the dispute. If the IAAF comes back with evidence in the next year there will be new proceedings. But it’s a question of proportionality and how you balance the interests of a minority with the majority interest.”

Dutee Chand will run at the Olympics after Cas issued a landmark ruling that challenged her suspension for hyperandrogenism. Photograph: Aijaz Rahi/AP

Tucker also disagrees with the Cas ruling – from a scientific and sporting perspective. “The fundamental issue is why do we have separate competition for women? If you answer truthfully it’s for fairness and equality. If you didn’t have a separate competition women would have no chance to win anything in sport – ever. Female competition exists to protect women.

“Look at Paula Radcliffe’s record in the marathon. It’s the strongest world record in women’s sport compared to men. The average difference between men’s and women’s world records is 12% and Radcliffe’s is 10%. That record was set in 2003 and back then it was 4,300th on the all-time record for men. It’s now outside the top 5,000.

“That enormous difference is not just down to testosterone. But most of the distinctions between men and women – lean muscle-mass, larger lung capacity, cardiac volume – can be attributed to testosterone development. Ask parents. Up to the age of 11 and 12 their children can play together. But after that you can’t have boys and girls playing sport together because puberty brings testosterone and testosterone brings differences.

“People say: ‘Oh, there is overlap between testosterone levels’ – and there is a little. Some women are always faster than some men. But the best men are always faster than the best women. Testosterone is the least overlapping physical characteristic I’ve ever encountered. It’s the most obvious difference between men and women – other than the gene.

“With Semenya we know what happened. She went on testosterone-suppression and came off it and the transformation in performance is dramatic. Last year she was running 2:01. In Monaco she ran 1:55. In Rio it could be 1:53. That’s eight seconds. 7% in one season. If you didn’t know the context you would say that person, without a shadow of doubt, is doping. But of course there should be no accusation of cheating against Semenya.”

Verster presents a counter argument. “People ask me why Caster didn’t run well last year – but she actually did if you consider everything. We were building nicely but in April she injured the same knee and couldn’t train much in May and June. In July we said let’s go to Europe and run two races. She surprised herself by qualifying for the world championships in Beijing.

“She ran 1:59 in the heats but on semi-final day she felt awful because she hadn’t done back-to-back sessions for a long time. She didn’t go well and she was angry and wanted to redeem herself. On the same day as the final in Beijing, we did a session at the back of the stadium on the warm-up track. She was flying – doing 400m in 55 seconds and feeling really good. I told her: ‘If you had been in the final you would probably have won it.”

Verster outlines Semenya’s subsequent progress – citing her injury free-happiness, a voracious appetite for hard work and the inspirational use of a male pacemaker to intensify her training. But how does he respond to Tucker’s arguments? “Ag,” Verster says, using an Afrikaans verbal shrug, “we don’t bother with people like that. My opinion is they’re looking for sensation. They’re probably looking to sell a new book. I know about [Tucker’s writing] but I haven’t read it. I don’t think Caster even knows about it. What he has to say with scientific evidence and other cases has nothing to do with us. We think everyone from the IOC down is happy. We’re happy focusing on what we do best.”

Tucker does not sound like a sensationalist to me so I ask Botton for his perspective. “I’ve been wrapping my head around this subject for so many years,” he says. “I hate the fact that, again, Caster is the poster girl for hyperandrogenism when other athletes are also affected. The intersex debate defines her whereas for me the most important thing is that Caster is a phenomenal athlete. When you watch her run and she opens up you forget the other issues. I get the same feeling watching Caster Semenya as I do with Usain Bolt. She’s that good.”

Semenya has been described as the ‘poster girl for hyperandrogenism’, and compared to Usain Bolt for her thrilling physical potential. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

Botton and Tucker approach Semenya from contrasting positions – but they both love athletics and were there on the momentous day this year when Semenya won three national titles in a single afternoon in Stellenbosch without looking like she was stretching herself. Near the end of the 800m, which she won by seven seconds, a television commentator exclaimed: “My word, this is something special. She is jogging!”

“It was extraordinary,” Tucker agrees. “What she did in three hours was unbelievable.”

Botton’s response is almost identical. “What she achieved that day was unbelievable. When Dominique Scott came over from the US to run the 1500m – and Scott was in good shape – I didn’t see Caster having anything left. But she ran an incredible 400m, went under two minutes in the 800 and killed Scott in the 1500. Caster can do anything. I’ll never doubt her again.”

Verster is less incredulous. “I half-expected it. We’d joke and she’d say: ‘Coach, I’m doing all three’ and I’d say, ‘You can’t…’ She kept on hammering and eventually I conked in and said: ‘OK, let’s give it a go.’”

There is a chance that Semenya could also run the 400m in Rio. Verster is trying hard to dissuade her. “From a coaching perspective I advised Caster months ago that we can double or even triple at the South African and African championships. But this is the Olympics. In my opinion we should just focus on the 800. Obviously she feels she should do the 400 as well. But the Olympics only happen every four years and we should not take it lightly. We’ll make a final decision soon but I hope it’s just the 800m.”

Tucker has predicted the drama and vitriol that would erupt if Semenya persuades Verster and she proceeds to beat the US’s most celebrated female runner, Allyson Felix, and wins the 400m before the 800m. But can a sceptic like him ever lose himself in Semenya’s majestic running? “It’s a tough one. But I can’t – because knowledge gets in the way. The truth matters to me. If Semenya can eventually run 1:51 she is better than Bolt comparatively. But Bolt doesn’t compete in a protected category for people with fast-twitch muscle fibres. He isn’t subjected to the same classification issues as Semenya is by virtue of the fact we’re trying to protect women.

“In regard to intersex athletes my position is that testosterone levels should be lowered to a level higher than the female average. The IAAF regulations were an acceptable compromise because, now, when I watch the 800m I think there are so many other athletes who have given their life to win this medal. It’s not fair to them to have no regulations.”

Three months ago Tucker conducted a fascinating interview with Joanna Harper – who describes herself as “a scientist first, an athlete second and a transgender person third.” Harper made the startling claim that we might see “an all-intersex podium in the 800 in Rio and I wouldn’t be surprised to see as many as five intersex women in the eight-person final.”

Does Tucker agree? “I know four of them but I don’t think the fourth got selected. Two of the others are an open secret in track-and-field. But it’s not fair for someone to be named an intersex athlete. What happened to Semenya in Berlin made it permissible but I suspect the athletes who win medals with this condition won’t tell anyone. I don’t know how many medallists in Rio will have an intersex condition. There might be half a dozen … maybe 10 if we look to weightlifting or contact sports where testosterone has a big influence.”

Botton admits his own conviction wavers. “You want to support Caster but there’s always this niggling thought. Is it fair for her to run? I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision, that I’m not the IAAF or Cas, because I don’t know where you draw the line. There are doctors and scientists, lawyers and administrators, and as long as they have said that, for the time being, she can run, I try to treat her just as an athlete.”

Tucker suggests that, in regard to possible changes to the Cas ruling in 2017, “the IAAF are hoping these athletes run as fast as possible and shoot the lights out. Then they can go back to court and say: ‘Here you go – here’s your evidence.’ But Cas might keep the ruling to satisfy human rights and ethical elements.”

The scientist sighs. “I’m actually dreading the Olympics. People only want to hear a good story so when Semenya wins gold the South African media will go crazy. If she breaks the world record, which I think she will, it’ll be even crazier. You can lie and say: ‘Happy days. Let’s celebrate our golden girl’ – which the politicians and media want. Or you can be honest and principled and say: ‘Actually, there are many things we need to address.’ That’s very unpopular. And then we’ll have terrible online abuse of Caster from the other side.”

Botton also stresses the likelihood of a world record. “Caster used to hold off and try not to break records. But now she doesn’t seem to care how much trouble it might cause. She wants Olympic gold and she wants to prove how good she is. If I had to put money on it I’d say she is going to break that world record and it will cause all kinds of problems. Can you imagine how fast she can run if she really lets rip?”

Semenya finished well clear of the pack in Rome earlier this summer, fuelling thoughts that a world record-breaking Olympic win is possible. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

Verster is clear when asked if he agrees Semenya could obliterate Jarmila Kratochvilova’s world record of 1:53:28 – set in July 1983? “Yes I do. Of course I believe Caster can do it. But our main goal is to win gold and even though Caster ran the fastest time in eight years, in Monaco, on the all-time list it’s not even in the top 20. We talk about taking baby steps.”

Semenya’s personal best is the 22nd fastest-ever women’s 800m – but most of those quicker times were fuelled by doping. The South African is running clean but, because of her natural testosterone levels, she is running towards trouble.

“Ja,” Verster agrees, “but Caster has a blunt way of speaking. She says: ‘We do our thing – stuff the rest.’ In Rio, we will go into shutdown. I believe it’s important to get to the village as late as possible. We’ll keep her away from everything.”

Does Verster expect a happy outcome, on and off the track, for Semenya? “Absolutely. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t believe that.”

Back in Johannesburg, on a cold night, Daniel Mothowagae speaks warmly of his friendship with Semenya. “Caster has come a long way. We all have. Most South Africans want to support Caster. In our community we know Caster is just a tomboy. But people are excited because every time Caster goes on the track she wins. They don’t care what science says about her.”

Mothowagae pauses when asked if he also imagines a happy ending for his favourite athlete? “Shew…,” he eventually exclaims. “It’s a difficult question. But, yes, I hope it will be a happy ending to a ‘controversial career’ in inverted commas. I also think it is one that the world will debate for years to come because Caster Semenya is a gamechanger.”